Revit Quantification (RoomBook) v's Navisworks Quantication

[Kev_D]

I would like to start a thread to discuss best practices and the pros and cons of using either of these two Quantification processes across both programs. I am trying to compare the two, but I am relatively new to both of them. Also, I have just started to get my head around RoomBook and have not looked at BuildingBook or AreaBook in any detail as of yet, but feel free to comment on either Quantification process.

I have found aspects of each one to be better than the other.

Revit Roombook can be very slow to calculate on large projects, but the findings are great, especially since it can calculate room finishes for the visible portion of a room boundary (to ceiling level), and you can add material finishes without having to model them. This for me is a plus, as Navisworks can't do this (at least I don't think so). RoomBook also calculates the furniture, casework for each room. The excel spreadsheet from RoomBook is much more manageable than the Navisworks exported spreadsheet (I obviously need to fine tune it more to make it more manageable).

In saying that, I think Navisworks would be better at quantifying whole products (concrete on floors & columns, etc.)

Has anyone any thoughts of what they find better or any serious pros or cons of either process? Do people in general really trust the quantities taken from either program? I'm sure they would have to trust the modeler and monitor their modelling. 

What is the general process for Quantifying models/projects in more detail? I mean, for example, do Architectural companies now provide quantification data to which they then pass on to the cost estimator? Or, are models just passed on to them for them to quantify as they may not trust the data?

I am trying to introduce more BIM processes to our office in order to save money. 

Any thoughts or advice is very welcome. Thank you for your time.

[Kev_D]

I don't expect for this thread to get many replies early on but my hope is to get more insight into these Revit Quantification processes.

There is very little information on using it online (although the set up is pretty straight forward, and I found one good video which a woman goes through each aspect) and there are very few threads about the use of it or issues arising from using it.

After spending another couple of days trying see the benefits of RoomBook, my head is fried that it can take so long on a complex project. Like I said in the first post, I wanted to test it against a large project, so I picked a project that we have over 800 rooms in it. No chance of this calculating, so I reduced it to 50 selected rooms, and still did not finish after a day of calculating (so I had to abort).

I done more research on the settings and eventually was able to create a room group, which I did per view basis (one level split up into different sections; east, west, etc.), and this enabled me to choose a group with about 20 rooms in it. Again, it has been calculating for over 4 hours so far and no end in sight. I performed this a couple of times and I thought that Revit just crashed, but you cannot cancel the calculation (at least I have not found a way), so I have to completely close Revit with the Task Manager. It is very frustrating that this process takes so long. By the looks of things it would take weeks to quantify this project!!! How can I make a case for the implementation of this??

I tested it on a basic project that had 3 rooms that were all perfectly square and had little furniture and doors with 1 basic ceiling and some fixtures applied, so I know some advantages of RoomBook and the results produced from it are great. This test project took 5 minutes to calculate (if even). In saying that, more complex projects seem to require prolonged computing time since they consist of odd shaped rooms, ceilings at different heights, and an abundance of furniture & fixtures. It just seems that it is unable to finalize the calculations and thus crashes. I could separate them by wall surfaces, ceiling surfaces, etc. etc., but this to me defeats the purpose of using the add-in.

AM I MISSING SOMETHING????????  

I had a chance to research more about Navisworks, and yes it produces great results, and has so many other benefits but you have to input a lot of data first by means of resources and minor formulas in order to quantify the model. You then have to add sets to the selected format. From what I cans see so far, it does not produce results on a room by room basis (which I think RoomBook is fantastic for).

Anyone with any information on either process would be very welcomed.

[M_Perez]

Just check that you don't have any "no placed" room in your proyect, I've notice it causes problems like the never ending that you comment. 

I have just few expirience with Roombook, hope to read here more interesting information!!

[Kev_D]

Thanks for your input.

So I went through the model and deleted all 'non placed' and 'not enclosed' rooms. Then I just selected one single room to quantify and it is calculating for well over an hour at this stage. So that was not the problem. 

I managed to test another aspect of it. When doing Room Quantities, the ceiling HAS to be 'Automatic Ceiling'. If you choose 'Sketch Ceiling', you HAVE to select wall when drawing lines. Drawing lines in itself will not split the wall surfaces at the ceiling level (even if you sketch at the center of the wall). This is a bit of a pain if you wanted to do ceilings at different levels, staggered ceilings, etc. Also, as soon as you create the 'Automatic Ceiling' the wall surface quantities are spot on, but as soon as you edit the sketch of it at its boundary, the wall surfaces will calculate to the height of the wall or the associated part. You can edit sketch and create circles inside the boundary (say for light wells), but do not move the boundary lines from the wall. I hope this makes sense.

[chauthienqui]

Hi, Glad to see someone is interested in Roombook.

As my side, i have not use Naviswork before, and i also get some issues same yours.

Ex:

1. Difference Level Celling: Oh, thats hurt. I still get no solution for that.

2. Beam and Floor, almost, Beam and Wall overlap in roombook calculation. (Basic wall 200mm with Beam 300x600, its fine, But wall 200 and Beam 200x300 always overlap Sidebeam, i really dont know why)

3. Sometimes, frontface of beam is missed in schedule.

4. Skirting length: Seems to be not Calculate.

Room book is insane, but so many things need to be changed.

My job is QS, so if i Re-model all thing in Revit, that is impossible, no-time for that, and if you do that, your model is huge 😞

[Anonymous]

I can't find much information on roombooks either. This is a very useful tool that is overlooked. I also can't seem to add the cost of furniture when it exports to excel.   I can add a column in excel and add cost but I would prefer to let Revit grab this information from the family identity data. Anyone have any luck accomplishing this task.